Quadruple
Homicide Cases

San Bernardino County, CA

Kevin Cooper

June 4, 1983 (Chino Hills)

Kevin Cooper was sentenced to death for the murders of Doug
and Peggy Ryen, their daughter, Jessica, 10, and a houseguest Christopher
Hughes, 11. Another child, Joshua Ryen, 8, suffered a slashed throat
and a skull fracture, but survived. Two days before the murders
Cooper, then 25, had escaped from a minimum security prison in Chino where
he had been sent a month earlier on a burglary conviction.Read More By Clicking Here

Orange County, FL

Tommy Zeigler

Dec 24, 1975

William Thomas Zeigler Jr. was sentenced to death for the
murders of four people in his furniture store. The store was located at
1010 S. Dillard St. in Winter Garden, FL. The victims were Zeigler's wife,
Eunice, her parents, Perry and Virginia Edwards, and a black customer,
Charlie Mays. Zeigler, himself, was critically shot.Read More by Clicking Here

Cook County, IL

Lloyd Lindsey

Oct 21, 1974

Lloyd Lindsey was convicted of murdering three little girls
and their brother. He was also convicted of raping one of the girls. A man who boarded with the children's family and a surviving brother told
police when interviewed together that Lindsey along with Eugene Ford and
Willie Robinson had strangled the children after raping the girls. The
three men then set fire to the home. Lindsey confessed to this crime,
parroting the details of the boarder and surviving brother. The home,
at 1408 W. 61st Street in Chicago, was occupied by Mrs. Catherine Horace,
her six children, and Lavelle Watkins, the boarder.

Medical evidence indicated that the children had not been
strangled, but had died of smoke inhalation. Two of the girls,
moreover, were virgins and showed no signs of sexual abuse. Lindsey
and his compatriots, who had not confessed, were tried together, but with
separate juries. Lindsey was convicted, but his compatriots were
acquitted. In 1979, the Illinois Appellate Court reversed Lindsey's
conviction, and barred a retrial. It ruled “the inconsistencies in the
testimony of [the principal prosecution witnesses] were not only
contradictory but diluted [their testimony] to the level of palpable
improbability and incredulity.” (CWC)
[1/06]

Cook County, IL

Milwaukee Ave. Innocents

Nov 27, 1981

Rogelio Arroyo, Isauro Sanchez, Ignacio Varela, and Joaquin
Varela were four members of the Varela family who were convicted of the
shooting deaths of four members of the Sanchez family and the non-fatal
shootings of two others in what became known as the Milwaukee Avenue
Massacre. The shootings occurred at 2121 N. Milwaukee Ave. The families,
both with roots in Guerrero, Mexico, had been engaged in a feud for six
years. In 1990, the real killer, Gilberto Varela confessed to the crime in
a collect call from Mexico. He and three others involved in the crime had
fled to Mexico immediately after the killings. Illinois Governor Thompson
commuted the convicted men's life sentences in 1991, but only after they
agreed not to sue for their wrongful arrest and imprisonment. (CWC) (ISI)
[7/05]

Cook County, IL

Leroy Orange

Jan 11, 1984

Leroy Orange was sentenced to death for the murder of Renee
Coleman, 27, Michelle Jointer, 30, Ricardo Pedro, 25, and Coleman's
10-year-old son, Tony. Orange confessed to the crimes after being subjected
to beatings, suffocation, and electroshock by Lt. John Burge and other
officers at the Chicago Area Two police station. Orange subsequently told
everyone he came in contact with that he had been tortured: his cellmate, a
physician, relatives and friends who visited him, his public defender, and
the arraignment judge. Orange's half brother, Leonard Kidd, implicated
Orange in the murders while being tortured at Area 2. However, Kidd
testified for Orange against his attorney's advice admitting that he alone
committed the murders without Orange's participation or knowledge. Governor
Ryan pardoned Orange on Jan. 10, 2003. (CWC)
[8/05]

McLean County, IL

David Hendricks

Nov 5, 1983 (Bloomington)

David Hendricks was convicted of murdering his wife, Susan,
30, and their three children, Becky, 9, Grace, 7, and Benjy, 5. The
murders occurred at 313 Carl Drive in Bloomington. While traveling in
Wisconsin, Hendricks called police to check on his family. No one had
answered the phone all weekend and he was worried. When police and
neighbors searched his home the next day, they found that Hendricks' entire
family had been hacked to death with an ax and butcher knife. When
Hendricks returned later that day, police questioned him and checked his
clothes and car for bloodstains. But the search was inconclusive, and
Hendricks' alibi of having left for Wisconsin around 11:30 p.m. on November
4, appeared solid.

While his wife was at a baby shower, Hendricks said he taken
his children out for a pizza at about 7:30 p.m. on November 4. According to
him, they then played in an amusement area and returned home at 9:30 p.m. He
said his wife returned at 10:45 p.m. and he left for his business trip
shortly thereafter. But after studying the children's bodies, medical
examiners discovered an apparent hole in Hendricks' story. Ordinarily, food
leaves the stomach and moves into the small intestine within two hours.
However, in all three children, vegetarian pizza toppings were still in
their stomachs, which led investigators to estimate their time of death
sometime around 9:30 p.m., while Hendricks was still at home. Hendricks' defense attorney hammered away at the only physical evidence
against him, pointing out that physical activity or trauma can affect the
rate of digestion. However, Hendricks was convicted of four counts of
murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Hendricks' conviction was later overturned because an appeals
court found the prosecution's argument of an alleged motive irrelevant and
prejudicial. The prosecution introduced evidence that Hendricks was a member
of a conservative religious group which shunned divorce and that he made
passes at female models he had hired for advertising purposes. At
Hendricks' 1991 retrial the prosecution presented the testimony of Danny
Wayne Stark, a jailhouse informant, who said that Hendricks confessed to the
slayings. However, the defense presented three inmates who testified
that Stark was known as a liar. The retrial jury acquitted Hendricks. Jurors said the prosecution had not proven its case. A book was
written about the case entitled
Reasonable Doubt by Steve Vogel. (Archives) [6/08]

Neosho County, KS

Willie Sell

Mar 8, 1886

Willie Sell was convicted of murdering his parents, brother,
and sister. In the early morning hours of March 8, 1886, 16-year-old
Willie banged on the door of a neighbor, Robert Mendell, talking
hysterically and incoherently. Mendell did not understand Willie's
story, but had caught the words, “blood, murder and hatchet.” Mendell
accompanied Willie back to his family's two-room house. On the floor
lay the bodies of Willie's father, James W. Sell, a schoolteacher and
farmer, and Willie's mother, Susan. In the corner, still in her bed,
was Willie's teenage sister, Ina. Their skulls had been beaten with a
hatchet and their throats had been cut. The floor was slick with
blood. In an adjoining room, where Willie had been sleeping, was the
body of Willie's brother, Watta Sell, 19, who was killed in the same manner
as the other members of his family.Read More by Clicking Here

Lawrence County, PA

Thomas Kimbell, Jr.

June 15, 1994 (Pulaski Twp)

Thomas “Hank” Hughes Kimbell, Jr. was sentenced to death for
the 1994 murders of his neighbor, Bonnie Lou Dryfuse, 34, her daughters,
Jacqueline Mae Dryfuse, 7, and Heather Sue Dryfuse, 4, and their cousin,
Stephanie Herko, 5. The murders occurred at the Dryfuses' mobile home at 100
Ambrosia Road in Pulaski Township. Bonnie was stabbed 28 times, Jacqueline,
14 times, Heather, 16 times, and Stephanie, 6 times. Bonnie's husband,
Thomas “Jake” Dryfuse discovered the bodies shortly after 3 p.m. Mary Herko,
who was Stephanie's mother and Jake's sister, had been talking on the
telephone with Bonnie at 2:20 p.m. and testified at trial that Bonnie said
she had to go because “someone is pulling up the driveway” (possibly the
murderer). Previously, Herko had told the police that Bonnie had said, “Jake
is pulling up the driveway.” The defense was not allowed to impeach Herko's
testimony to bring out the fact that Bonnie had indicated her husband rather
than just “someone.” The husband, Jake, claimed to be elsewhere at the time
the phone call ended.Read More by Clicking Here

Philadelphia County, PA

Jose Pagan

1990 - 1991

Jose Pagan was convicted of two separate double homicides
committed 12 days apart. In July 1992 he was convicted of the second-degree
murders of Luis Bermudez, 20, and Ivelisse Gonzales, 21. The two were
murdered inside Bermudez's apartment in the 400 block of West Dauphin St. on
Dec. 30, 1990. In Dec. 1992 Pagan was convicted of the first-degree murders
of Pablo Padilla, Sr., 59, and Pablo Padilla, Jr., 31. The Padillas were
murdered inside their home at 4741 North 3rd St. on Jan. 11, 1991. Pagan
was sentenced to death for these murders. On April 1, 1991, Police Officer
Julio Aponte reported that Pagan had confessed to the four murders ten days
earlier. Aponte later helped to convict Pagan by testifying to this alleged
confession.Read More by Clicking Here

Australia (NSW)

Ljube Velevski

June 1994

Ljube Velevski was convicted of murdering his wife, Snezana,
his daughter, Zaklina, age 6, and his twin babies, Daniela and Dijana, age 3
months. The throats of all the deceased had been cut. At trial, Velevski's
defence argued that Snezana had killed her three children, then herself. The killings occurred in a three bedroom suburban house in Berkeley,
Wollongong, New South Wales. Velevski's parents lived with Velevski and his
family at the time of the killings.Read More by Clicking Here